NYC-based band Cults to Perform at Pappy and Harriet’s on November 4th
by Jason Hall
Cults is an indie pop band from NYC. The band was formed shortly after Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion were introduced in a tour van occupied by Madeline’s brother’s band. The two had an immediate chemistry, however it wasn’t obvious they were destined to make music together for a while after. Once they finally realized they were musically compatible, they hit the ground running. Their first release was an EP released on bandcamp titled Cults. This EP quickly gained traction and was noticed by British pop musician Lily Allen.
Shortly after a sketchy email from an account proclaiming to be Lily Allen, the duo found themselves flying to London to negotiate their first record deal with Allen’s label, In The Name Of. The success of the self-titled Cults was followed by Static, an amazing sophomore effort fueled by the personal breakup of the duo. The energy of the breakup is felt in every song.
The duo was strong enough to keep the band together through their personal differences and returned with the newest album, Offering, which was released earlier this month and has been gaining traction. With this album, the duo finally has enough material to play an amazing full set live. They will be playing this Saturday, November 4, at Pappy and Harriet’s. Madeline and Brian took time during the early part of this tour to talk with us about their catalog, tour, and sense of humor.
CVW: How did the two of you meet?
Madeline Follin: “We met in a van. My brother was on tour and Brian was hitching a ride out to California. I happened to be in San Diego. I was hopping on the rest of the tour, and we met in the van.”
CVW: Was it obvious right away that you needed to make music together?
Brian Oblivian: “Not immediately. It probably took six months or so. I remember starting this band because Madeline started jamming with our friend Will. They wrote a song together and it was awesome. She played it for me and I was like, ‘well… I can do that. We should do that.’ Will ended up playing in our band. That was the start of everything.”
CVW: Has it always been more just the two of you in the studio or do you bring in the live band or friends?
Madeline: “Normally it’s always the two of us and we’ll have our guitar player and our drummer and bass player come in and play the parts after they’re already written.”
Brian: “Yeah, those are always really fun days when we have the songs 95% there and have those guys come in and tell them to not even listen to what we’ve written. We just have them play what they want to play. A lot of times they’ll come up with something we haven’t even thought about. We’ve always had three or more musicians on all of our albums other than us.”
CVW: How did you guys get hooked up with Lily Allen’s label, In The Name Of, for the Cults album?
Madeline: “We had just recorded those three songs and put them online. Maybe 3 days after Gorilla v. Bear and Pitchfork picked it up, we got a weird email from a generic ‘Lily Allen’ email. It just said, ‘Hey, this is Lily Allen. I really love your music. Want to fly out to London this weekend and meet with us? I’m starting a record label.’ We didn’t believe it was actually her, but the email said she’d buy us a ticket and have a car waiting for us at the airport. We never had been to London, so thought, ‘Fuck it! Let’s go.’ It really was her and her partners, Crispin and George. We had a great weekend with them, and they seemed to be on the same page as us.”
CVW: I heard Static was recorded after the two of you broke up. Is that true? Static seems like the perfect name for an album after a break up.
(Both Madeline and Brian laugh and answer “Yeah!” at the same time.)
Brian: “To me, the name of the album was quite literal. It was a weird obsession I had. I was kind of referencing that Magnetic Fields album, Distortion. When we were mixing the album, I found a couple of old TVs and would turn the lights off and listen to the music with these TVs playing static. If the vibe felt right, or spooky, we felt we were getting close. For me there was no larger frame of reference than that.”
CVW: Static is my favorite of the 3 albums. There’s not one mediocre song on it.
Madeline: “Thank you!”
Brian: “It’s always going to be my favorite too to be honest. It’s super spooky. That is my favorite quality in a lot of different art I like. It wasn’t always what I wanted to make, but for that album it was. I’m glad you called it out.”
CVW: Who’s in the live band this tour?
Madeline: “We have Gabe Rodriguez on guitar whose been in the band since day one. Cory Stier is our drummer. Their band Hideout is opening this half of the tour. And there’s Max Kamins on bass.”
CVW: To me it seems obvious you guys have a great sense of humor. I love how there’s a video of “Go Outside” where you synch Jonestown footage with your vocals; very Cultish. Has that always been the idea, or did you decide since you were named Cults, you might as well do a Cult video?
Brian: “I feel like we don’t get much credit for that. I feel like there’s some weird disconnect between what I feel and what our fans feel about our songs. To me a lot of them are very funny, but this is the first time somebody has reflected that back to me. Maybe because of the name people gravitate really literally toward this super spooky interpretation of what we do. I mean, that’s part of it, but there’s more to us. We’re trying to show more of that with this record. Maybe you can tell by this conversation, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
Madeline: “It’s funny because we’ve never really done much social media before. I think all our fans expect us to be really dark and serious. I’ll post something funny on instagram and get 1 like and then I’ll post some stark photo, and it’s the highest liked photo. I’m shocked. I’m thinking, ‘what? You guys don’t like funny things?’”
Brian: “We were the angsty teenagers, but now as adults, we like the dumb jokes. The real fight in being an adult is not becoming cynical. We have to stay goofy.”
